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CUBAN INDEPENDENCE. 



SPEECH 



HON. WILLIAM J. PURMAN, 

OF FLOEIDA, 



IN THE 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



JUNE 19, 1874. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1874. 



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SPEECH 



HON. WILLIAM J. PUR MAN, 



The House having under consideration the following joint resolution (H. It. 
No. 90) for the recognition of the independence of Cuba : 

"Whereas it is the clear and undoubted right of any American colony to sever 
its connection with the mother colony and establish itself as an independent nation 
whenever the good of its people requires it ; and whereas the people of Cuba have 
declared themselves free and independent of the government of Spain, have estab- 
lished a government for themselves and abolished negro slavery, and for more than 
five years have successfully resisted all the efforts oi Spain to reduce them to sub- 
mission and re-establish the condition of negro slavery in that island ; and whereas 
the war between Spain and Cuba has been and is now being conducted with a degree' 
of barbarity shocking to all Christendom, and there is no reasonable prospect that 
Spain will ever be able to re-establish dominion over the people of Cuba ; and 
whereas, in consequence of the proximity of the seat of war to the United States 
the war has been and is injurious to the interests of the people of the United States, 
and it is evident that a prolongation of the contest will result only in great suffering 
and bloodshed, to be followed by the ultimate recognition of the independence of 
Cuba by Spain herself : Therefore, 

Kesotved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the JJnitedj States of America 
in Congress assembled, That it has become the duty of the United States to recognize 
Cuba as one of the independent nations of the earth. 

Sec. 2. That the United States will observe strict neutrality between the con- 
tending parties during the further prosecution of the war, and will accord to each 
of them belligerent rights and equal privileges and advantages in all ports and 
places within the United States — 

Mr. TUBMAN said: 

Mr. Speaker : The first cry of freedom in Cuba, though in a different 
language from ours, sobbing across the narrow Gulf Stream, received 
a ready response and re-echo in the chivalric hearts of Florida. Flor- 
ida, once a sister with Cuba in the family of the once great Spanish 
nation, cannot be oblivious to the struggling condition of her less for- 
tunate relation. The blood of a historical consanguinity yet courses 
through the veins and memory of our people. 

It was the good fortune of our State to have been first plucked from 
the grasp of Spanish dominion by the reckless gallantry of a cavalier 
general and in violation of all international law, and the jewel of 
American liberty was set upon her brow in the similitude of a captive 
beauty crowned by her conquering and conquered knight. She es- 
caped the penalty "of a bloody revolution paid by all her other sisters > 
as the price of their liberty and independence. 

Severed so early by a most happy fate from the mother family and 
blessed like a beautiful damsel of poor estate wedded by a mighty 
king, she has not grown selfish in her happiness nor haughty inyner 
superior station, but like a true sister comes tojthe rescue with ajd the 
power of tears and prayers — tears to beseech propitiation from Hreaven , 
and prayers to beseech mercy and recognition from this United States 
Congress. 



In the session of 1870 the Legislature of our State spoke as follows 
by the adoption of the resolution introduced by myself: 

Resolved by the people of the State of Florida, represented in senate ami a 
That we are not and cannot be indifferent to the eventful history which our Deist) 
bors are enacting on the Island of Cuba in fcheL patriotic endeavors for freedom and 
independence. That by out' proximity of country, bytht-comityth.it hits always ho 
happily prevailed between our respective people, by our own love of liberty, and 
by tin! promptings of our own political religion, that all nations, should be free and 
enjoy the blessings of popular insti tut ions, we extend onr heartfelt sympathies and 
hopes to the struggling patriots of Cuba, and with them unite our invocations for 
their speedy deliverance from oppression and their victorious establishment of a 
' free government, which is the only rightful authority on earth to which universal 
t man should acknowledge obedience; and that our expressions of fellowship in 
* feeling and prayer may carry with them at least the power of a moral support and 
encouragement, we hereby request our Representatives and Senators in the Con- 
gress of the United States to respond to the strong popular sentiment of the whole 
country, and at once accord by the sovereign voice of Congress those belligerent 
rights and protection to the cause of free Cuba which a common justice, kindred 
principles, and an enlightened humanity demand, and which are sanctioned by the 
usage and laws of nations. 

Again, in the session of 1874, upon the resolution introduced by 
Senator Howe, of Key West : 

Whereas the people of the Island of Cuba have been and are still struggling for 
their national existence and are trying to establish a free government for them- 
selves and their children ; and whereas the war waged by the Spanish government 
has no parallel for its inhumanity in modern times, and should not be permitted by 
any civilized nation : Therefore, 

Be it resolved by the people of the State of Florida, represented in senate aiid assem- 
bly, That the Congress of the United States is requested to adopt such legislation 
as may be necessary to enable the national Government to extend such aid to the 
people of Cuba as becomes a great republic, whose people so ardently sympathize 
with an oppressed nation. 

And be it further resolved, That our Senators and Representatives in Congress are 
requested to present these resolutions to their respective bodies as expressive of 
the sense of the people of Florida. 

Again, through the voice of her chief executive, who sent the fol- 
lowing telegram greeting to President Grant upon the apprehension 
of difficulties arising from the capture of the Virginius aud the assas- 
sination of portion of the crew : 

State of Florida, 
Executive Office, Tallahassee, Florida, Xozember-20, 1^73. 
U. S. Grant, 

President of the United States, Washington, D. C: 
In case of serious difficulty with Spanish authorities in Cuba Florida will do its 
duty ; and as we hold the front position geographically, so we will claim the front 
rank in the cause of national honor and human liberty. 

il. L. STEARNS, 
Governor. 

This tender to the President meant indignation at the insult offered 
our flag, earnestness for the vindication of its honor; for it was 
written by a governor with his left hand, having already lost his 
right arm in defense of his country's flag. 

Thus has our State spoken in the most solemn and authorized man- 
ner known to our constitution; aud were I, from any possibility, to 
remain silent upon this floor upon this stirring question of a people 
who are are our neighbors by geography, political aspirations, and 
reciprocal interests, fighting aud dying for liberty and independence, 
T would be recreant to my own convictions of duty aud to the most 
sanguine sentiments of my constituents. 

Sur, I give my. most cordial support of heart and hand and vote to 
the resolution of the gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Poland] for the 
recognition of the independence of Cuba. 
If the principles and facts enunciated in the four propositions of 



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the preamble to the resolution are correct, then every unbiased mintl 
cannot fail to see in the logical deduction independence; and inde- 
pendence only. 
The first proposition is — 

It is the clear and undoubted right of any American colony to sever its connec- 
tion with the mother colony, and establish itself as an independent nation, when- 
ever the good of its people requires it. 

Is this proposition as a political principle correct, and sanctioned by 
the proudest pages in the history of our own country ? 

The grandest monument to the wisdom and patriotism of our revo- 
lutionary sires is the immortal declaration of our own independence 
as Colonies from the kingdom of Great Britain. They declared life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as the fundamental and inalien- 
able rights of man, having been endowed with these rights not by 
any ancient parental monarchy or free constitution, but by their own 
Creator ; that only for the purpose of securing these rights were gov- 
ernments instituted among men, and the powers of such governments 
are alone derived from the expressed will of the majority of the gov- 
erned ; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive 
of these rights, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and 
institute a new government for their better safety and happiness. 

Such was the new political doctrine adopted by our colonial fathers 
in the New World ; and after another declaration that the colonies are 
and of right ought to be free and independent, they mutually pledged 
to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor for the 
support of their new doctrine, and the Rubicon was crossed forever. 

What degenerate son will deny a single principle baptized in the 
blood of our own Ee volution, or, deface a single stone bright with our 
own glory in this temple of liberty reared for us by our forefathers ? 

"Whenever the good of its people requires it!" Sir, God and the 
enlightened world know that the good of the 677,951 white people, 
and the good of the 605,461 colored people in Cuba, over a quarter 
of a million of the latter being bound in abject slavery, require as 
speedily as the pen of fate can write the event the fullest abolish- 
ment of the last vestige of Spanish domination over the island. 

What nameless oppressions for centuries have been endured by the 
devoted people of this beautiful island the Christian world never 
could fully know. 

The Spanish tyrant repressed all general education, prevented 
the free introduction of knowledge among the people, suppressed all 
societies for the promotion of any useful or popular purpose, and un- 
der such a never-ceasing system of suppression the Cuban's history, 
as apart from the unreliable information furnished by the tyrant 
himself, remains unwritten, and preserved only in cherished tra- 
dition. 

From the day the native Indian chief Hatuey was burned at the 
stake, exclaiming with his dying breath, " I prefer hell to heaven if 
there are Spaniards in heaven," to the hour when the late President 
Cespedes, discovered by a Spanish detachment in the Sierra Maestra 
Mountains, fired the contents of his last revolver at them and cast 
himself headlong over the rocky precipice, preferring a sublime sui- 
cide to Spanish capture, this island has been the scene of such tyranny 
and crimes as to shock all Christendom and cause the very heavens to 
weep. 

Hear but a hasty recital of the wrongs that have crushed genera- 
tions after generations, and ask yourselves the question whether the 
American people have no sympathy for these heroic patriots, and 



whether our recognition <•!' their Independence, not by enthusiastic 
declamation, )>n t By the passage of this resolution, is not our Bolemn 
duty in the interest of an exalted and prophetic patriotism, and in 
the light of that Christianity which teaches as to love our neighbor 

as ourself. 

Hear Hi;' v, rongs,hoary with age and to-day dripping with the blood 
of the oppressor and the oppressed. 

The island has been under martial law Shu e 1 325. 

Cuba is permitted no representation in the Corto 
Spain. 

The natives of the island are excluded entirely from the army, the 
judiciary, the treasury, and the customs. 

The military government assumes the charge of the schools, and 
the inhabitants are forbidden to send their sons to the United 
for educational purposes, and only one child out of eighteen is allowed 
to be taught to read and write. 

The press is under the vilest censorship and newspapers from abroad 
with few exceptions are contraband, while letters passing through 
the post are opened and purged of their contents before delivery. 

Cubans are deprived of all arms, and are not allowed to carry even 
a fruit-knife under a penalty of imprisonment for six years, and arc 
fined five pasos (dollars) for carrying canes of a larger size than can 
be easily introduced into a gun-barrel. 

A Cuban must purchase a license before he can invite a few friends 
to take a cup of tea at his board, and no person can remove from one 
house to another without first paying for a government permit. 

Farmers are compelled to pay 10 per cent, on all their harvi 
soon as gathered except sugar, and on that article 2| per cent. 

Upon every species of property sold the sum of 10 per cent, on the 
purchase price must be paid to the government. 

The grazing of cattle is taxed exorbitantly, and no goods either in 
or out of doors can be sold without a license. 

They have no right of trial by jury, no liberty of speech or of the 
press, and are not permitted to assemble themselves to the number 
of three without being dispersed. 

Stamped paper must be used for all contracts, costing eight dollars 
per sheet; flour is taxed ten dollars and fifty cents per barrel from 
the United States and two dollars and fifty cents from Spain, and the 
rich only can eat flour while the poor eat cassava-root. 

The culture of wheat, which grows luxuriantly, is restricted. Bread- 
stuffs from the United States are excluded or burdened with heavy 
duties for the benefit of Spanish producers. 

Ice is monopolized by the government and fishing on the coast is 
forbidden, being also a government monopoly. 

The captain-general and his stewards levy taxes and contributions 
at their pleasure, amounting now to more than sixty millions per 
annum. With this revenue the government keeps an army of fifty 
-thousand Spanish or Peninsula troops on the island, pays a vast num- 
ber of officials, part of the clergy, half the entire Spanish navy, and 
many officials of rank at home in the mother country, and the surplus, 
if any, is remitted to Spain and expended on mutters entirely foreign 
to the interests of the island. 

Is it unnatural that a social gulf, deep as an unfathomable abyss 
in the Alps, has for ages divided the Cuban from the Spaniard ? What 
an Iliad of woes in this richest territory on the face of the globe — a 
paradise by nature made a hell by the Spaniard. Was ever the op- 
pression of the American colonies by the British government equaled 



by one hundredth of the oppression inflicted for centuries upon the 
unfortunate colony of Cuba ? The forms at least of civil govern- 
ment prevailed in our Colonies, and the protection of life and prop- 
erty were at least asserted in the equal laws of Parliament. In Cuba 
the only government is a military despotism, where the fate of all 
life and property ever hangs in the uncertain balance of an arbitrary 
will and from whose decree there is no earthly appeal. Upon re- 
monstrance the British Parliament alleviated the taxation of our 
Colonies until the duty on tea alone remained the most obnoxious im- 
position. In Cuba everything is taxed, without precedent or propri- 
ety, and the burden of the imposition is only graduated by the ability 
of the subject to pay the extortion, with no cortes or parliament to 
appeal to for even temporary justice or alleviation. 

The principle that taxation and representation are inseparable in 
any just government impelled our fathers into a revolution by formal 
declaration on the 4th of July, 1776. Impelled by the same convic- 
tion that taxation and representation are inseparable, and goaded by 
the iron of tyranny piercing their flesh at every turn, the patriots of 
Cuba declared their independence from the thralldom of Spain on the 
10th of October, 1868, at Mauzanillo, and submitted to the God of 
their conscience, and all civilized nations, the asseverations of their 
patriotic purpose. 

Who can declare in the face of this free nation that dates its lib- 
erty from the rebellion of its fathers, and without doing violence to 
the truth of our own history, that the people of Cuba have a less 
righteous cause for freedom and independence than we had in 1776? 

Sir, any change from a military despotism will be for the good of 
a people so mysteriously cursed in this omnipotent toleration by a 
common Creator, and the generous American people have for years 
been convinced that the independence of Cuba will alone secure the 
universal disenthrallment of this island and relieve the United States 
from a constantly threatening danger of collision with Spain herself. 

The second proposition in the rjreamble is capable of incontroverti- 
ble establishment : 

The people of Cuba have declared themselves free and independent of the govern- 
ment of Spain, have established a government for themselves and abolished negro 
slavery, and for more than five years have successfully resisted all the efforts of 
Spain to reduce them to submission, and re-establish the condition of negro slavery 
in that inland. 

The revolutionists, headed by Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, an able 
lawyer and wealthy planter, raised the standard of revolt on the 10th 
of October, 1868, and issued their declaration of the justice and de- 
termination of their cause. 

A few extracts from the memorable instrument I beg the House to 
hear : 

In arming ourselves against the tyrannical government of Spain we must, accord- 
ing to precedent in all civilized countries, proclaim before the world .the cause that 
impels us to take this step, which, though likely to entail considerable disturbances 
upon the present, will insure the happiness of the future. 

It is well known that Spain governs the island of Cuba with an iron and blood- 
stained hand. The former holds the latter deprived of political, civil, and religious 
liberty. Hence the unfortunate Cubans being illegally prosecuted and throwu into 
exile, or executed by military commissions in times of peace; hence their being 
kept from public meeting, and forbidden to speak or write on affairs of state ; hence 
the,ir remonstrances against the evils that afflict them, being looked upon as the 
proceedings of rebels, from the fact that they are bound to keep silence and obey ; 
hence the never-ending plague of hungry officials from Spain to devour the product 
of their industry and labor ; hence their exclusion from public stations and want of 
opportunity to skill themselves in the art of government ; hence the restrictions to 
which public instruction with them is subjected, in order to keep them so ignorant 



as not to be able to know and I of e theil rights in any shape or form wha- 

hence the navy and standing army which are kept apon their country at an enor- 
i s expenditure from their own wealth, to make them bend their knees and sub- 
mit their necks to the Iron yoke that disgraces them ; hence the grinding taxation 
tinder which they labor, and which would make them all perish in misery but for 
the marvelous fertility of their soil. On the othi r hand, Cuba cannot prosper as 
she ought to, because white immigration, that suits her beat, is artfully kept from 
her shores by the Spanish government. And as Spain has many a time promised 
ns, Cubans, to respect our rights, without having hitherto fulfilled her pros 
as she continues to tax us heavily, aud by so doing is likely to destroy our wealth ; 
as we are in danger of losing our properly, our lives, and our honor under further 
Spanish domination; as we have reached a depth of degradation unutterably 
revolting to manhood; as great nations have sprung from revolt against a similar 
disgrace after exhausted, pleading for relief; as we despair of justice from Spain 
through reasoning, and cannot longer live deprived of the rights which other peo- 
ple enjoy, we are constrained to appeal to arms to assert our rights in the battle- 
field, cherishing the hope that our grievances will be a sufficientexcuse for this last 
resort to redress them and secure our future welfare. 

To the God of our conscience and to all civilized nations we Bumbit tin- sincerity 
of our purpose. Vengeance does not mislead us, nor is ambition our guide. We 
only want to be free, and see all men with us equally free, as the Creator intended 
mankind to bo. Our earnest belief is that all men are brethren. Hence our love 
of toleration, order, and justice in every respect. We desire the gradual abolition 
of slavery with indemnification ; wo admire universal suffrage, as it insures the 
sovereignty of the people ; we demand a religious regard for the inalienable rights of 
man as the basis of' freedom and national greatness. 

During the first month of the Avar a provisional government was 
organized at Bayamo, and on the 10th of April, 1869, a convention 
met at Guaimaro of the delegates of the different sections of the 
island, whe^e a constitution was considered and adopted. Their con- 
stitution is similar in all essential features to any of the free con- 
stitutions of our States, and by article 24 slavery is forever abolished, 
and all the inhabitants of the republic of Cuba are declared abso- 
lutely and forever free. 

For more than five years the Cubans have successfully resisted all 
the power of Spain to reduce them to submission, and more than five 
hundred and sixty-eight engagements have been fought, many of 
them it is true of small proportions and inconsiderable damage, while 
again scores of battles have been fought where from 100 to 800 were 
left dead upon the field. At the battle of Cubitas 300 Spaniards 
were killed and 500 wounded, and 160 Cubans killed and wounded. 
At Guantanamo 1,200 Spaniards and 135 Cubans were killed and 
wounded. In March, 1874, the Spaush General Arminan was defeated 
at Guasinias by General Maximo Gomez in such a disastrous manner 
that he fell back to Puerto Principe Avith scarcely a single man of 
his column five thousand strong. 

The constitution and laws passed by the house of representatives, 
notwithstanding all the contrary statements by the enemies of free 
Cuba, continue to rule as regularly as can be expected from an infant 
republic whose twofold difficulties simultaneously are the institution 
of itself and the fighting of its opponents, and the latest informa- 
tion shows that the Cubans hold their own from Santiago de Cuba 
to the district of Cinco Villas, over more than half the territory of 
the island. Wherever the patriot soldiers sweep they leave terror 
and destruction behind them. To the Spaniard's plantation they 
carry irretrievable devastation, while to their slaves they carry the 
invitation to freedom which is as instantly embraced, for freedom 
even in the camp and dangers 'of the liberators is far dearer than 
that brutal bondage in which there is no emancipation save in wel- 
come death. 

The white and colored soldiers in the patriot army fight side by 
side for liberty, are not divided off into colored and white regiments, 



9 

stand shoulder to shoulder in the same ranks, and in the number of 
commissioned officers are as many colored as white. One of the 
bravest and most successful generals in the Cuban army is a colored 
man, General Palicarpo Rustan, called the "Hero of the' East." 

With 005,461 colored people on the island, 379,523 of them held as 
slaves, and this battle of freedom raging around them, the very 
flame and smoke of which offer them their only hope of deliverance, 
the bloody struggle must inevitably keep on increasing instead of 
diminishing, and all efforts 6i Spain to re-establish slavery on the 
old foundations once destroyed by the patriots must indeed fail, 
and unspeakable calamities will follow each unsuccessful attempt, 
until that day, whether immediate or remote, (for time works no inter- 
ference with the providences of God,) when the shout of liberation 
shall arise all over the island and the chorus reaching our shores 
shall go swelling through the South like an army of angels making 
music with their wings. 

The third preamble is so susceptible of direct proof, that I shall con- 
tent myself with a few references only and extracts from official doc- 
uments : 

The war between Spain and Cuba has been and is now being conducted with a 
degree of barbarity shocking to all Christendom, and there is no reasonable pros- 
I>ect that Spain will ever be able to re-establish dominion over the people of Cuba. 

The history of Spanish rule has ever been one of rapacity and 
cruelty in all her colonial possessions. Her peace is filled with vio- 
lence and her wars with barbarity..' From the treacherous murder of 
Incas and Montezuma to the last dastardly assassination of Captain 
Fry and his companions, her record is one of continual blood and in- 
humanity. She commenced on one line of policy in 1850 with the 
wholesale execution of Lopez and Crittenden and their followers, and 
has not swerved from it to the present day. Cubans taken prisoners 
are butchered on the battle-field, and Americans or foreigners captured 
in actual or constructive hostility are summarily executed as pirates, 
in violation of all civilized rules and international law. In January, 

1869, the Spanish soldiers inaugurated a reign of terror in Havana, 
assassinating at theaters, in coffee-houses, and in the streets men, 
women, and children. In March three hundred persons of the best 
Cuban families were exiled to the Island of Fernando Po, where more 
than half of them perished from cruelty and privation. In February, 

1870, in Santiago de Cuba, eighteen prominent, rich, aged, and peace- 
ful persons were executed without trial. During the year 1870 it is 
estimated that ten thousand unarmed and peaceful Cubans were shot 
by the Spaniards. In January, 1871, Colonel Alvear's Spanish troops 
murdered the ladies and children of the distinguished Mola family, 
whom they found on a plantation. In November the military author- 
ities arrested and executed eight boys and condemned others to the 
chain-gang for the alleged offense of desecrating the grave of Casta- 
non while as medical students they were playing in the cemetery. 

The civilized world stood aghast at this incredible inhumanity. 
Behold the horrid picture, as drawn by Senator Benot in the Spanish 
Cortes, itself : 

Most of you, my lords, are fathers. Picture to yourselves in your mind's eve 
your sons being absent from the university of Havana in consequence of the 
absence of a professor, going in a spirit df boyish light-heartedness to a neighbor- 
ing cemetery to play. Imagine for this irreverence, and a certain want of confi- 
dence that existed' in the authorities, a ferocious and riotous mob taking your 
sons prisoners, subjecting them to a council of war, accusing them falsely of 
injuring the tombs. Imagine again the council of war acquitting them, and this 
savage rabble, worked up to a pitch of paroxysm at human blood being denied it, 



10 

after (hey had been, acquitted, to another council of 
war, and there, at the point ol the bayonet and under the fears inspired by the 
howls <>f these blood-thirsty hyenas, there condemning eight oi your sons to death 
and the resl i < » the chain-gang ! The children numbered forty-four, and On 
council of war* ordered them to draw lots who Bhould die. Among the others it 
tvil to the lot, of two brothers, and the stony hearts of tin- judges ei en thin 
hard to deprive a Eather atone blow of botn of bis Bona pardoned one of them : bat 
in order mat the number should remain correct they substituted for the pa 
boy another, because he happened to he somewhat older than the rest, without see- 
jug or caring that they were breaking the. heart of another father by murdering Us 
innocent eon — so innocent indeed that he had not even been in Havana on the day 
of the alleged demolition of tin tombs. What should you say.O upright senators, 
n ho have grown gray in the administration of justice, if one 01 your s.,n> had been 
condemned to death and shot like a dog tor the fearful crime of being a little older 
than his unfortunate companions] Would to God that the bitter tale were bidden 
from all the nations of the earth 1 

In January, 1872, Captain-General Valmaseda issued a proclama- 
tion that every male person found away from his home should be 
shot, the women if white be put in prison and banished, and if col- 
ored to he condemned to the chain-gang for four years. In April 
Colonel Morales captured a place where twenty-five women, ten chil- 
dren, and six old men were living peacefully, and executed them all. 
During the year 1872 it is estimated that four thousand unarmed 
persons w^re shot by the Spaniards. In November, 187:5, the Ameri- 
can shipVirginius, with one hundred and fifty-six men cm board, was 
captured by the Spaniards. Out of this number four were instantly 
shot without trial and forty-nine more after a mock trial, and in 
. utter violation of our treaty with Spain, were shot within a little 
more than one week after their unlawful capture on the high seas. 
Persons are tried and sentenced to death while absent or out of the 
country, children are immolated, judgment is passed upon the dead, 
the innocent suffer for the guilty, human ears are fried and eaten, 
and the only power is that of brute force in the lawless service of 
tyranny and plunder. 
Here is another scene of barbarity shocking to all Christendom : 

Santiago he Cuba, November 15, WW. 

My dear Fkiend and Brother: I know you -will pmlon me for not answering 
your letter of last April, in which you desire "full information in regard to the 
massacre of the Grand Lodge of Santiago do Cuba and t he present condition of their 
widows and orphans." When your letter was received it had the appearance of 
having been opened. This fact and the contents of the letter convinced me that if 
the reception of the letter by me was known by the governor my life, in spite of 
my high official position, would not be worth a moment's purchase." I immediately 
burned the letter, and beyond my usual ■correspondence cu business matters have 
not thought it advisable to touch on matters and things of our unhappy island, much 
as I should have desired you to have the horrible facts to present them to the Grand 
Lodge of New York at their last sitting. But this vou know was impossible, as 
every mail was searched, and life here is held of no value whatever. But the affairs 
of the last few days anil the savage acts of the volunteers have compelled many to 
leave here secretly, as there is no knowing where this will all end. and by this mode 
I send this letter, though when it will reach you God only knows. 

The Grand Lodge in 18G9 met here, as was their custom since their organization. 
They had never been disturbed by the government, although their time and place 
of meeting were well known to all of us. The night before the meeting I was in- 
formed that the arrest was to be made, and that should there he an v resistance on the 
part of the tvler to the free entranee of the Officers tin' troops were to tire into the 
building and burn it, with all those within. I personally informed t he l ; rand Lodge 
of these intentions, and the next morning learned that they intended to hold their 
session with open doors. They did so, and were arrested and that night confined 
in the .jail. The next morning they were informed that they should be taken to 
Havana for trial ; but three hours after Sunrise they were all taken outside of the < it y 
and shot. This act created considerable excitement at the time, but as it was im- 
prisonment to speak of it, it was soon hushed up. 

The families of those men thus shot were placed on trial for the act of the heads 
of those families, and, as a result, their property was confiscated, they were declared, 
paupers, and at the same time the populace was forbidden, under pain of imprison- 



11 

merit, to render any of them any assistance. Ilins, being deprived of home and 
shelter, food and the means of obtaining it, forbidden to Leave the jurisdiction of 

Santiago do Cuba, those poor, helpless creatures sought shelter in the woods near 
here, and became one oommon family. 

But the inhumanities, cruelties, and barbarities which these women and children 
have been subjected to passed the belief of a civilized being. I could not, describe 
what I have seen and been unable to prevent. All robberies are laid to their door, 
and even supposed robberies were gotten up, so that the chase of the blood-hound 
might be witnessed by the rabble, and the suffering of some one of the poor beings 
added to their thirst for morbid depravity. It was not two months after the execu- 
tions that I saw one of the women, who was about to become a inother, placed be- 
tween two boards, upon which sat a heavy burly savage, surrounded by a dozen 
soldiers and several officers, who were trying to compel "this helpless being to con- 
fess a crime of robbery which I had previously investigated, and could find nothing 
that warranted the belief of a robbery having been committed. Her dead body was 
left there, and four days after, when the stench compelled its burial, it was found 
to have been partly devoured by dogs. Since that time to the present these poor 
creatures have been subjected to outrages beyond description or comprehension by 
the people of a community such as you live in. 

ONLY A FEW LEFT. 

There are now but few living, perhaps thirty to forty souls, though in 1869 they 
numbered in all over three hundred. Some died from starvation, others from ex- 
posure, while the majority of them were killed by blood-hounds, for it is one of the 
sports, of these brutes to hunt these poor people as game. I have seen bodies of 
those thus lulled whose sex could not be distinguished'by reason of mutilation. An 
attempt to exterminate them was made a few days ago by the volunteers and 
some of the crew of the Tornado. "When the Virgihius was brought into the har- 
bor it was made the occasion of great festivities, and liquor flowed freely. Toward 
midnight a party of three men, with hounds to hunt their victims, started for the 
woods. No one dared to prevent what it was known would follow. The next morn- 
ing they boasted in the streets of what had taken place, and related with pride and 
pleasure the violence to which they had subjected these women and girls, some of 
the latter being only ten years old. 

BURYING NINE VICTIMS. 

"With an associate official we that afternoon proceeded into the woods and ordered 
the burial of nine whom we found dead. Seven were suffering from violence that 
I cannot describe ; one was black in the face, she having been choked to death, 
while another had her entire breast bitten off. I returned sick at heart, unable to 
render the slightest assistance, though I had been compelled to look on with ap- 
parent indifference. 

■ By means of negroes we render them what assistance we can. Clothing we can- 
not send, as this might be identified, but food and medicines we have so'far been 
able safely to send through slaves, who have more pity for these beings than they 
who once shared the bounty and hospitality of those they now persecute. 

I need not ask you to keep my name to yourself. Toil know where all the proof 
can be had of this and other matters. I nave not gone into the matter in the full 
detail that the case deserves. If the people in the United States should petition 
their Government to give the moral influence of some kind of protection, the money 
could easily be had to" either take them out of the country or provide for them with- 
out any expense to the community. In God's name do what you can for humanity. 

The Secretary of State, in a dispatch to the Spanish minister Octo- 
ber 13, 1869, says that the civil war in Cuba has continued for a 
year; battle after battle has been fought, thousands of lives have 
been sacrificed, and the result is still in suspense; and the minister 
is reminded of the frequency with which, in the interest of human- 
ity, he has been obliged to remonstrate against the atrocities and cru- 
elties which have attended the conflict in Cuba for the last year. 
The principle of neutrality has controlled the proceedings of the 
Administration, he says, with regard to the war in Cuba ; but he can- 
not admit the indefinite protraction of a conflict such as has existed 
for the past year in that island, a conflict marked with cruelties, 
destruction, and devastation without parallel in modern civilized war- 
fare. 

. The American minister at Madrid reminded the Spanish minister 
of state that this Government had before remonstrated against cer- 
tain proclamations of the captain-general of Cuba that threaten a 



12 

mode of warfare at variance with the recognized customs "l civil- 
ized cations; and he protests with all solemnity, in the name of the 
President of the United States, against the deplorable excesses which 
have thus far characterized the war in Cnba, and insists in the name 
of humanity, while hostilities are prolonged, thai the war shall in- 
conducted in a manner more in accordance with the humane and 
Christian sentiments <>!' the age. For nearly a year the insurgents 
have maintained themselves against all tin- forces which Spain and 
the Catalan volunteers have heen aide to put into the held against 
them. In the judgment of the President, in which the whole civil- 
ized world will coincide, the time has come, he says, when i his strug- 
gle shall he carried on in a more humane way. To shoot prisoners 
of war simply because they are taken with arms in their hands is not 
in accordance with the custom of the Christian world. We have a 
right on our part to insist that Spain shall carry on this war hereafter 
in a manner more in accordance with the humane and Christian sen- 
timents of the age. And the Secretary of State, Mr. Fish, in his 
dispatch of November 12, 1873, to our minister, Mr. Sickles, declares 
that such wholesale butchery and murder are almost incredible : that 
it would be wholly incredible but for the bloody and vengeful deeds 
of which Cuba has been the theater, and that no government de- 
serves to exist which can tolerate such crimes. 
The fourth and last preamble of the resolution is as follows : 

In consequence of the proximity of the seat of -war to the United States the ■war 
has been and is injurious to the interests of the people of the United States, and it is 
evident that a }>rolongation of the contest will result only in great suffering and 
bloodshed, to he followed by the ultimate recognition of the independence of Cuba 
by Spain herself. 

The proximity of the Island of Cnba to onr own country, command- 
ing as it does the approach to the Gulf of Mexico and barring the en- 
trance to the Mississippi River, which drains half of the North Ameri- 
can continent and is the great highway of commerce of the Western 
States of this Union, forces the question of its condition and destiny 
upon our most serious consideration and invests this question with 
interests peculiarly American. 

This island keeps watch at the door-way of all our Mississippi, Gulf, 
California, and South American commerce, and nature and necessity 
will ever demand that it shall be the friend and ally of the United 
States, and its enemy never. 

The prolonged war in this important and neighboring island has 
been and is injurious to the interests of the people of the United 
States, and its indefinite prolongation, with all its destruction of pro- 
ductive industries, its horrors and barbarities, must be firmly discoun- 
tenanced, for the potent voices of humanity and commerce demand 
it. What greater agencies controlling the destiny of nations than the 
Christian sentiments born of a common humanity, and the interests 
of trade which marshals the money of the world I Under the present 
war of extermination and ruin, as it draws its bloody length along from 
year to year, with neither conquest on the one side nor independence on 
the other, no nearer success than five years ago. American citizens are 
suffering in.life and property, and the treaty obligations to this country 
are violated with daily defiance and thus far with impunity. We de- 
sire no hostile attitude between the United States and Spain, and only 
from a sincere regard for the mutual interests of peace do we desire a 
speedy termination of hostilities in this unhappy island, and in the 
light of the past experience and the unconquerable difficulties in the 
future it would seem that the Spanish Cortes itself must see that this 



13 

war can only be a fearful waste. of blood and treasure for a time, to 
end at last with exhaustion and the expulsion of its flag from this 
Gem of the Antilles. 

Torn by civil war and contending armies, with no established form 
of government or fixed rule at home, how can Spain have any reason- 
able hope to subdue this revolution in Cuba? Can it be expected 
that the republican governments in this hemisphere will have more 
regard for the pride of a decayed monarchy or an insincere and inse- 
cure republican dictatorship in Europe than for their own sense of 
justice and political and commercial interests? 

All nations steer their policy by the compass of national interest. 
European diplomacy is nothing but a network of self-interest, fre- 
quently torn by mighty wars but quickly repaired by the oft-renewed 
treaty, and thus treaties, intrigues, and wars hold their perpetual suc- 
cessions like the rotations of the seasons. Our hemisphere has no 
such network of international dangers. With a simplicity and uni- 
formity of government in every portion of it, and entangling alli- 
ances with no European systems, our national existence may ever be 
characterized by the successful study and fruition of the' highest hap- 
piness-attainable by the science of government. 

But can the United States be ^different to an indefinite protraction 
of this contest in Cuba ? Has its continuance for five years been in- 
jurious to the interests of the United States ? In the statesmanship 
of every country two questions are always prominent, and cannot be 
exceeded by any other considerations, that of national safety and na- 
tional revenue. The preservation of our institutions, and the exten- 
sion and protection of our trade are the vital organs in the body of 
our country's welfare itself, and these being more directly under the 
guardianship of the representatives of the people demand our first 
solicitude and maturest reflection. 

The interests of a country consist not alone in the profits of busi- 
ness, and the collection and disbursement of its revenues, but also in 
the contentment of its people, in the uncompromising protection of 
their rights abroad, in the undoubted power and disposition of its 
government, and in the respect and inviolability of its flag upon all 
the waters of the globe. 

All of these interests of the United States have suffered most in- 
juriously, and must continue to until the conclusion of this mad con- 
test in the very pathway of our Commerce tmd on the very threshold 
of our bordering sea of the south. 

The danger confronting us is an outburst of hostility at any moment 
between the United States and Spain, and all on account of complica- 
tions arising out of the present condition of Cuba and our inseparable re- 
lations with that island. To avert this danger, which is not appalling 
to our power, only discordant to our cherished policy of peace, the 
early tranquillity of this island is a question for our serious contem- 
plation. As lovers of our country we will at least not hesitate to 
initiate the process of pacification, or, better still, the peaceful process 
of independence in Cuba before we ourselves are drawn unwillingly 
into the vortex of war. But shall this pacification be secured by the 
defeat of liberty or the expulsion of despotism ; by the triumph of 
the patriot or the victory of the ineffable tyrant ? 

Our obligations of amity and treaty have ever been scrupulously 
observed toward Spain through every administration of the Govern- 
ment to the present. Spanish citizens have not been molested nor 
their property disturbed ; but so freely have they mingled in the en- 
joyments and rights of our institutions that their distinct presence has 



14 

not even attracted our attention. ]i' any complaint could be made it 
could only be at the excessive regard generally .shown to the Bide ol 
the Spaniard at the expense of our own citizens. So intense has 
always been our desire for amity and peace th.it in all differences be- 
tween our citizens and the government of Spain since 1850, she re- 
ceived invariably the benefit of our Indifference or our silent discrim- 
ination in her favor. 

Charity flows from liberality, and magnanimity from strength, bnt 
there are moments in the life of nations as Wei] as in individuals when 
charitable virtue must cease, and the preservation of vital interests 
can he no longer deferred. This I solemnly believe is the decisive 
moment in our relations with the Spanish government in the Island of 
Cuba, when we should act in a spirit of nounkindness bnt firmness 
and fidelity for the security of our own safety and commercial-interests. 
This constant war and irritation in Cuhauniits the captain-general and 
his myrmidons from the calm consideration of all questions relating 
to the United States. Irresponsible as is this military despot, he sud- 
denly aggresses upon our rights, violates our treaties, assassinates our 
citizens, and then pleads his want of power for reparation, and serenely 
refers the nations demanding redress to another hemisphere, to a dis- 
rupted government that may or may not at the time have a temporary 
head at Madrid. The captain-general has unlimited power for good 
or evil, but none for restitution, and the answer to all just complaints 
from the home government are only the repetition of excuses rendered 
by inferior officials to their superiors. 

It ever has been, on the part of Spain, a disregard of justice to all 
friendly nations, to provideherrepresentative in Cuba with such extra- 
ordinary powers, and in case of injuries to make no provision for 
prompt redress. 

In 1851 nearly four hundred American citizens landed upon the 
shores of Cuba under the leadership of Lopez to assist the oppressed 
Cubans in an uprising for liberty. Their unfortunate fate is well 
known, having been captured and summarily executed. General 
Crittenden with a number of his companions was also about the same 
time captured — not as soldiers, but unarmed — on the Island of Con- 
toy, belonging to Mexico, and after a mock trial before a military 
tribunal were basely murdered^ and the gallant Crittenden, when 
ordered by the Spanish executioner to kneel down, exclaimed with 
indignation, " I kneel to none but my God." 

Following close upon these outrages two American vessels, the 
Susan Loud and the Georgiana, were seized upon by the Spanish 
authorities while lying off the coast of Yucatan* and the officers and 
crew subjected to the most ignominious and inhuman treatment upon 
the suspicion that they were concerned in the Lopez expedition. 
Next, the Falcon, a United States mail steamer, was fired into by a 
Spanish vessel without even a specious pretext. United States mail- 
bags were next forced open by the Spanish authorities, the mail 
overhauled and examined for the avowed purpose of preventing the 
reception and transmission of any communication or news except 
only such as the captain-general should deem proper. About the 
same time the United States steamer Crescent City was refused 
a landing at Havana with her passengers and mails because the 
purser of the boat was obnoxious to the Spanish authorities, by which 
act our postal and commercial arrangements were interrupted and 
our private citizens deeply injured. The United States Steamer Black 
Warrior was next fired upon by a Spanish war steamer, the vessel 
siezed, and the property of our citizens for a time confiscated. 



15 

In this way from time to time has our flag been insulted and our 
confidence and friendship abused by a weak Spanish neighbor toward 
whom we were ever just and indulgent in all our intercourse. 

The consul-general at Santiago de Cuba informed the Secretary of 
State in June, 1869, that three American citizens were publicly shot 
without trial, having been taken prisouers at .Ramon. 

Speakman, a native of Pennsylvania, a perfectly innocent man, was 
cruelly murdered after the formality of a trial that amounted only to 
a farce. Mr. Cohner, the well-known American • artist, was assassin- 
*ated in the streets of Havana, in 1869, only in pursuance of that 
Spanish habit of insulting, plundering, and killing our citizens. The 
brutal butchery of Greenwald, because he was thought to be an Ameri- 
can, and the treatment his dead body received, as well as the at- 
tempted assassination of other American citizens who were his com- 
panions, are yet well remembered by the country. In March, 1869, 
the American brig Mary Lowell was captured and condemned as a 
Spanish prize. This act was more in contravention of international 
law than even the seizure of the Virgiuius. 

More recently the American steamer Aspinwall was seized by a 
Spanish war vessel on the high seas upon the suspicion that she had 
arms and ammunition for the Cubans. She had no contraband goods 
on board, and was accordingly released after having been taken to 
Havana ; but no reparation has yet been made, in answer to the 
demands of this Government, for the wrong done to our commerce 
and the national flag. 

And more recently the capture of the steamer Virginius'on the high 
seas, carrying American papers and the American flag as evidence of 
her nationality, by the Spanish war steamer Tornado, and the hasty 
miu'der of fifty-three of her passengers and crew for no crime actually 
committed or known to international law, is still fresh in the minds 
of the people, and needs but this allusion at my hands. 

But a few months ago a prominent citizen of my own State set foot 
on the Island of Cuba in pursuit of his legal business, having been em- 
ployed to attend to some embargoed interests belonging to his country- 
men. Crossing through the island from Havana he reported himself 
at the office of the American consular agent at Nuevitas ; whereupon 
both he and our agent were arrested by the Spanish governor, although 
the agent was subsequently released. But the undignified treatment 
of American official representatives in Cuba is not an unusual thing. 

Only two years ago the American vice-consul at Santiago was com- 
pelled to seek safety from personal violence by seeking refuge on 
board of a French frigate, and the American consul-general at Havana 
received about the same time from the British naval officers the 
assurance of their protection and the offer of a file of marines to pro- 
tect him whenever it became necessary to seek his safety on board a 
British man-of-war. A state of .affairs in which such outrages can 
possibly occur is indeed but a smoldering magazine from which the 
explosion of war may come upon lis at any hour in the day. 

This maltreatment of our consuls and inhuman murder of our citi- 
zens is not only a wanton indignity to our Government, but is wholly 
in willful violation of the most solemn treaty stipulations. 

Article 8 of the treaty of 1795 with Spain is as follows : 

And in all cases of seizure, detention, or arrest for debts contracted, or offenses 
committed by any citizen or subject of the one party -within the jurisdiction of the 
other, the same shall be made and prosecuted by order and authority of law only, 
and according to the regular course of proceedings usual in such cases. The citi- 
zens and subjects of both parties shall be allowed to employ such advocates, solicit- 
ors, notaries, agents, and factors as they may judge proper in all their affairs, and 



!6 

in all their trials at lav. in which they may be conceinc i before the- tribunals of tin- 
other party ; ami such agents shall have free access to be present at tin- proceedings 

in such cases, anil at the taking i>i' all examination air I evidence which may he ex 
bibitedat the said trials. 

No language could lie clearer or more comprehensive : 

In all case* of offenses CQnunitted by anv citizen within the jurisdiction of the 

other, the same shall be prosecuted bj authority of law only, ami according to the 
regular course of prooeeiliii'j..s usual in such cases'. 

Need I say that oVtr countrymen so ruthlessly slain in Culm were 
for the most part captured on the high. seas, "without arms in their 
hands, and outside of the limits of Spanish jurisdiction; ami when 
carried on land often no trial was had, no charges were preferred; 

while at others no examination or evidence was had, ami the con- 
demned were never permitted even to see the unusual ami est ran cd i nary 
tribunals thatpassed judgment upon them. In this way lias American 
blood been wantonly shed in contempt of our flag and in foul treach- 
ery to the requirements of a mutual treaty. 

To-day the fate of F. A. Dockray, an able, accomplished, and gallant 
citizen of my State, who was arrested at Nuevitas, is still undecided, 
one military tribunal having condemned him in violation of the safe- 
guards of the treaty, though through the energetic interposition of 
our Government he will be accorded another trial, which I pray may 
result in his acquittal, for the prayers of a stricken father and agoniz- 
ing mother are ascending hourly to Heaven for the preservation of 
their only child to comfort them in their old age. 

Sir, it is not in human foresight to see how long this country and 
Spain can maintain peaceful relations with such a train of outrageous 
occurrences passing between them. It calls for the wisdom of both 
nations to devise a speedy remedy for a mutual extrication from this 
threatening dilemma. Our remedy lies in the passage of this resolu- 
tion. 

Wisdom and forbearance can devise nothing better. To this com- 
plexion it must come at last, and it were better that the American 
Congress now rise in moral grandeur and determination equal to the 
exigency, rather than that the coming year shall see another heca- 
tomb of our citizens slaughtered in cold blood, shall behold our com- 
merce crippled and our flag still more disgraced, only to be confronted 
at the next session by an inexorable necessity to take this very step, 

Our commercial interests must suffer great injury by the indefinite 
continuation of this struggle in Cuba. Liberty and commerce pre- 
serve the life of the nation, as freedom and circulation the healthy 
life of the individual. 

The best evidence of" the progress of a nation is to be seen in the 
steady extension of its commerce, and its first signs of decadence in 
its shrinkage. 

The commercial pursuits of this country have been steadily pro- 
gressing, as seen by our gradual increase of American tonnage from 
1,368,127 tons in 1815 to 5,353,868 tons in 1860, while during the war, 
for obvious causes, our tonnage decreased; but since the close of the 
rebellion we are again in the line of recovering our former proportion. 
Our foreign commerce has always been on the increase, and the loss 
of national tonnage did not retard the constantly increasing value of 
our exports and imports. In 1851) the value of this commerce was 
$330,037,038 ; in 1860, $762,288,550 ; and in 1873, over $1,300,594,864. 
With the exception of Great Britain the most important and valuable 
of our commercial exchanges is with the-inexhaustible island of Cuba. 

Our trade for 1873, excepting again Great Britain, with seven of 



17 

the principal commercial countries; as rated by their exchange of 
products with the United States, represents their relative importance 
as follows : 

China $28, 207, 023 

Japan 10,017,432 

Italy 15, 215, 639 

Spain. 15, 019, 155 

Kussia 13,976,545 

Austria 2, 390, 014 

Total 91, 785, 808 

Cuban trade 107,500,000 

In a eommcrcial point of view then our trade with Cuba alone is 
$5,714,192 greater than that of the six other of our best customers 
combined. 

The following official table serves to show to what extent our ship- 
ping is engaged in the carrying trade of Cuba — more than double that 
of Spaiu, and more than fourfold that of England and France : 

Entrance and clearance of vessels in, the ports of Cuba during 1847. 



Countries. 


Entrance. 


Clearance. 


United States 


2,012 

819 

563 

99 


1,722 




751 




489 




81 







The United States imported from Cuba in 1873 1,454,124,259 pounds 
of raw sugar, valued at $77,953,470 ; also 43,533,909 gallons of molas- 
ses, valued at $9,901,051; also 113,670,829 pounds of melada valued at 
$4,722,165; total, $92,500,000; and imported from all the rest of the 
world $19,072,920 of sugar and molasses. American ships alone car- 
ried 795,000 tons of this freight, and at the usual rate of five dollars 
per ton our shipping earned nearly $4,000,000 in the transportation 
of this one product of traffic between these two countries. 

In 1873 the United States exports to Cuba amounted to more than 
$15,000,000, and estimating the inhabitants at about 1,200,000, the 
rate was over twelve dollars to each one of her population. 

Our exports to Germany with its 45,000,000 of people were $61,767,997, 
£>r at the rate of one dollar and thirty-eight cents per head, and 
to France with her 38,000,000 of people our exports amounted to 
$33,000,000, or at the rate of less than one dollar per head. 

The magnitude of our trade with Cuba may have escaped attention 
in our more eager gaze at the brilliant enterprise of . bringing the 
fabulous wealth of the Orient through the golden gates of San Fran- 
cisco, and yet the figures prove that our traffic with this island is 
more than twice as valuable as that of China and Japan combined. 

Other nations, as wise and enlightened as we are, do not scruple to 
engage in war for no other purpose than really to open new avenues 
for commerce and to drain the source of new riches into their na- 
tional coffers, and yet the United States Government hesitates to 
extend even the hand of moral fellowship to a people who individ- 
ually are of more importance to this country in a commercial calcula- 
tion than either the Chinese, Spanish, Germans, or French combined. 

The English embark in war in Asia to compel an unwilling people 
to become opium-eaters for the benefits of the English treasury, and 
yet we, who are no better Christians, and not half as o-ood political 
2p 



18 

economists as our cousins across the Atlantic, shrink from speaking 
one word of recognition and encouragement to a brave people from 
whom we receive three-f ourths of that indispensable article, sugar, 

consumed in this country, and who are self-sacrificing devotees to 
our own republican form of government. 

Shall this Government stand by in stoic unconcern and witness the 
sure and gradual destruction of its important and essential com- 
mercial interests in (Julia, or shall we pass this resolution, a simple, 
peaceful act in itself, usual and rightful between nations, without 
cause for offense on the part of Spain, but which act will become an 
event, and will herald the not distant independence of Cuba as the 
stimulating sunshine of spring heralds the glorious harvest of the 
summer? 

Our peace and vital interests require protection, but not by inter- 
ference. The simple passage of this resolution will hedge our inter- 
ests with all the potency they require, and develop others to a great- 
ness unthought of before. Our policy is peace and protection. What 
the course of the British government would he under the like circum- 
stances now surounding us may he easily inferred from their position 
held in 1821, and announced to the allied powers of Europe. They 
said no government was more prepared than their own to uphold the 
right of any state or states to interfere where their own security or 
essential interests were seriously endangered by the internal transac- 
tions of another state. 

Again, it can easily be demonstrated that it is not among the posi- 
hilities of Spain, with all her superiority of arms and discipline and 
navy, to crush this spirit of independence in Cuba, or to subdue the 
present military opposition to her authority. 

The decrepitude and unstahility of Spain herself is the strongest 
proof in support of this assertion. With imperialism and democracy 
at war in the mother-country, and all probabilities so uncertain even 
that no reasonable prediction can he ventured upon the issue, where 
are the material and strength to come from for the ultimate sub- 
jugation of this heroic people ? Ultimate even, for time brings legions 
and strength to the Cuban and weakness to the Spaniard. 

Said Seiior Garrido in the Cortes over a year ago : 

The Cubans have the same right to administer their island as we have to govern 
and administer our provinces and local interests. Against tyranny there is always 
the right of rebellion, and we who for titty years were always rising against des- 
potism cannot deny the right of rising to those whom we ourselves oppress. You, 
say you want twelve thousand more men to crush the Cuban insurrection ; but this 
insurrection has already existed four years, and now von come and tell us that you 
want twelve thousand men to subdue it. besides the fifty thousand or more that you 
have sent already. I ran tell you that the question of Cuba is for you an insoluble 
one; you may send your twelve thousand men there as you have sent many times 
twelve thousand already during the last four years, but you will not settle the 
question for all that. • , 

Said Senor Eduardo Benot, in the Spanish senate : 
We have lost in the Antilles thousands and thousands of brave soldiers ; Cuba is 

the tomb of the Spanish youth, the grave of the Spanish army. "What have we 

ginu'd alter ill 1 v wrc stmg firom the ( uiians tie. 11 lnca-n rights which, tr\ as \v. 

may, must still be theirs ! We have won the right of being held up as the most 

inhuman people in all civilization. 

In 1809 General Prim stated to the Cortes that Spain had sent 
34,500 men to re-enforce the army and navy in Cuba, and the whole 
Spanish forces employed in Cuba since the commencement of the 
revolution number over 107,401), from their own estimates. The 
Cubans commenced with a body of 117 armed men, and to-day have 
17, "250 well-armed men under an able and successful commandcr-in- 



19 

chief. General Maximo Gomez, 3,000 of whom are an efficient and for- 
midable cavalry, whom the .Spanish .soldiers describe as "men on 
horseback, without guns, lighting like devils." 

In 1870, when the revolution was weaker than to-day, and when 
Spain had an established government and peace at home, Mr. Sickles, 
our minister at Madrid, informed our Government that the Spanish 
campaign in Cuba had failed, aud that their great reliance was then 
on the thirty gun-boats lately built for Spain in the United States. 

What has become of these 107,400 Spanish troops ? The captain- 
general iu his official report of 1869 accounts for 14,000 as having 
been lost by disease and battle during that year. In the absence of 
further official reports from this military functionary upon the sub- 
ject, it may not be unreasonable to conclude that 14,000 at least fol- 
lowed each year in the same wake, which for the years 1870, 1871, 
1872, and 1873 would amount to 56,000 more as mustered out by bat- 
tle aud disease. 

When is it possible for Spain, disrupted in government and dishon- 
ored-in credit, to send out 107,400 soldiers more for the conquest of dis- 
ease and the patriots? Will it be when Don Carlos and Marshal 
Serrano shall meet in armistice and each contribute his quota of 
troops for the expedition ? 

Captain-General Jovellar lately resigned his position as governor 
of the Island, being convinced that Spain cannot now, and I assert 
never can, furnish the requisite men and money to maintain her sov- 
ereignty in Cuba. 

Sir, a people whose cause is just, once baptized in the blood of 
liberty, are ever invincible, and tyrants from all ages and nations can 
bear unwilling testimony to this truth. For seven years our fathers 
persevered amid the varying fortunes of war for the boon of liberty 
we, their descendants, now enjoy, and who will say that the devotion 
to independence is less intense in Cuba than it was in our Colonies, 
with all their superadded suffering and political degradation to nerve 
them on to victory or death ?. 

It is not in Spanish power to again enslave this people, six hun- 
dred thousand white and six hundred thousand colored, who fight 
with such persistent desperation, whose commissary is the bountiful 
fruitage of a tropical clime, w T ho have such inapproachable fastnesses 
for safe retreat and as a constant basis for renewing operations, and 
whose faithful ally in the destruction of their unaccliinated enemies 
is that fearful scourge of the tropics, the yellow-fever. 

The future of poor Cuba may yet be darkened for years with more 
blood and anarchy, which merciful Heaven forbid! but the final 
blessing upon all this martyrdom must come at last as certain as that 
immutable justice is an attribute of God. 

Sir, the natural right of revolution is recognized by all international 
jurisprudence, and no cause for revolt more just than that of Cutre 
stands recorded in the annals of the world. If there ever was an occa- 
sion that justified a revolution, that called upon a people to recur to 
first principles and seek relief from the abuse of power by an appeal 
to arms, this was one. The spirit of resistance was not evoked by any 
question of abstract rights, but from actual suffering and grievous 
oppression in the administration of justice, in agriculture, in com- 
merce, and in every pursuit of happiness. 

Wars were formerly fought for families and dynasties, for the rights 
of thrones and the prerogatives of crowns ; now men fight for written 
constitutions, for the rights of men and the prerogatives of nations, 
and fighting learn to govern for themselves. 



2d 

Shall this brave people of both races vvh >fol Ui arij Bis yeai - have 
licf'ii fighting for the creation of a new nation, and who in their final 
triumph will cease fco be Spaniards as well as slaves, continue yel 
another year withoul one word of sympathy from as, simply because 
we brook the spontaneous expressions of our own hearts and judg- 
ments in mosi unnatural deference to the opinions of European mon- 
archies .' 

Tlir very fad that such powers are the enemies of liberty every- 
where is the very reason why our greal nation should be its friend. 
Monarchies arc always swift in the recognition of new governments 
in political affinity with their own, regardless of the question of their 
birth, whether by statecraft, as Amadeus of Spain, by usurpation 
as Napoleon III of France, or by invasion and attempted conquest 
of a sister republic as Maximilian in Mexico, shall we, from fear of 
European criticism or for want of moral stamina in the exercise of 
our prerogative, turn a deaf car for another year to the crying ap- 
peals of liberty in Cuba, orshall we rather, imbued as I knew we are, 
express the same noble sentiments as uttered by the Father of his 
Country on the presentation of the French flag to our Government in 
1796: 

Hern in a land of liberty, my anxious recollection, ray sympathetic feelings, and 
my best wishes are irresistibly excited, whensoever, in any country, I see an op- 
pressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom. 

Why hesitate in this act of justice to a struggling nation who for 
six years have been fighting for their own liberty and for the freedom 
of over a quarter of a million slaves .' 

Who doubts that if France or Prussia or "Holland had treated our 
revolutionary fathers with tbe same indifference and delay in the 
acknowledgment of their independence as the Congress of the 
United States has shown toward Cuba that George Washington and 
his illustrious compeers would have died ignommiously as traitors 
upon the scaffold, and their marble statues that now houor this 'Cap- 
itol would be unhewn block's in tbe quarry and their monuments, 
like that of the adored Emmet, would yet be uusculptured and un- 
epitaphed ? 

Benjamin Franklin, declining to receive back a sum of money which 
he had loaned to a poor and worthy man. Upon tender of its payment 
exclaimed, "I do not need ^ it pass it round among other poor and 
worthy people who are in distress." 

What was our condition and prospect of success before the sun of 
foreign recognition rose above the horizon of oiu- Colonies .' .Says 1 1 i I — _ 
dreth, the historian : 

November, 177G. — Washington's army was by this time greatly reduced. The 
term of service of the militia was fast expiring. The whole dying camp soon 
claimed their discharge, and no inducement could procure a moment's delay. Some 
of the New York militia refused to do duty. Howe, they said, offered peace, lib- . 
erty, and safety; so they understood his proclamation, and what more could be 
asked? The Continentals were enlisting for a year, and their term of service was 
fast drawing to a close ; nor did they always wait to complete it. desertions being 
very numerous. Exclusive of the division's of the highlands, and the COrpS under 
Lee on the east side of the Hudson, Washington's army did not exceed four thou- 
sand men. 

In December Washington made the memorable retreat across the 
Delaware, while the principal cities of the country were one after the 
other falling into the hands of the enemy ; and at the expiration of the 
year the sanij historian describes the following situation : 

The Howes issued a new proclamation. The speedy triumph of the mother-coun- 
try seemed certain, and many persons, those especially of large property, including 
several who had taken an active part in the Revolution, hastened to make Un- 
required submission. 



21 

Turkey, president of bhe late New Jersey convention, which had sanctioned the 
Declaration of independence and formed bhe stale constitution, now abandoned 
his country's cause and book a British protection. S<> did Alien and t ralloway, late 
delegates from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress. KVjr ben days alter the 

issue of the proclamation two or three hundred persons came in every day to take 
the oath. 

At this critical juncture in our liberty's history the opportune recog- 
nition and friendship of Franco alone saved us from disintegration, 
defeat, and the ignomy of death on the scaffold. 

Pass the blessing of liberty round through the hemispheres and the 
islands, wherever a gallant and worthy people strike and ask for it. 
Liberty sped from France to our shores upon the wings of their 
recognition of our independence. Let us speed liberty to Cuba upon 
the wings of the passage of this resolution, and the stars that this 
night keep watch over that bleeding island will sing the song of 
salvation in the morning, as the morning stars sang together over 
the birth of a Saviour at Bethlehem. 

We, as a nation, are the beneficiaries of Providence, as was he to 
Franklin, who received a valuable favor at his hands. To have pock- 
eted the money and been indifferent to worthy and distressed neigh- 
bors, would have stamped him with the moral crimes of theft and 
ingratitude. 

To enjoy our freedom in arrogance and be indifferent to the dis- 
tressed republic of Cuba, when by this simple recognition of their 
independence we could bless them as France and the other nations 
blessed us, would it not be undeservedly stamping this country as 
guilty of baseness and ingratitude without parallel in the annals of 
the Christian world ? 

No American colony ever achieved its independence without the 
friendly assistance of other nations. 

Gi'eece received material aid in armies and ships, even more than 
the simple recognition that Cuba pleads for, from the allied powers 
in Europe against Turkey. And this interference, not recognition 
only, is justified by our most authoritative commentators upon inter- 
national law. 

The assistance that England gave to the United Netherlands when they were 
struggling against Spain, and the assistance France gave to this country during the 
war of our Revolution, were justifiable acts, founded in wisdom and policy. And 
equally justifiable was the interference of the European powers of France, Great 
Britain, and. Eussia, in favor of the Greeks against the Ottoman Porte, by the 
treaty for the pacification of Greece concluded by those three Christian powers 
in 1827, and by means of which a ferocious and destructive war was terminated by 
the independence of the Greek state as a new kingdom, and a recognition of that 
independence by the Ottoman Porte in 1832. So, also, there was a successful inter- 
ference in 1840 of four of the European powers, Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, 
and Eussia, in the civil war between the Ottoman Porte and Mehemet Ali, the 
Pasha of Egypt. And lastly, there was the memorable interference of the five 
great European powers in the Belgic revolution of 1830, which ended in the separa- 
tion of Belgium from Holland, and the establishment of the same as an independ- 
ent state. — Kent's Commentaries, volume 2, page 23. 

The South American Spanish colonies for years before their inde- 
pendence was even recognized by Congress, received such assistance 
from the United States as was obtainable under the following in- 
structions issued by President Madison on the 3d of July, 1815. 

Cuba will be content with the same assistance and her indepen- 
dence would be assured under similar presidential instructions at 
this time, though I believe it is the imperative duty of Congress to 
accept the responsibility of this question and to inaugurate a new 
policy in our relations witli Cuba which the Executive of the Gov- 



eminent would faithfully carry out as the expression of the will of 
the people : 

There is no principle "f the law of nations which requires us toexolnde from 
our ports toe subjects of a foreign power in a state of insurrection against their own 
government. It is not incumbent aponus to take notice oi crimes and offenses 
which are committed against the municipal laws of another country, whether they 
arc classed in the highest grade of treason or in the lowest grade or misdemeanor, 
Piracy is an oficnsc nnuinsi the law of nations, and every 6ivilized government un- 
dertakes to punish the pirate when brought within its jurisdiction ; but an aci of 
revolt, a rebellion againsl a sovereign, must not be confounded with an act of piracy, 
which is denominated hostility against the human race. 

Any merchant vessel, therefore, which has not committed an offense against the 
law ox nations, being freighted with a lawful cargo and conforming in all respects 
to the laws of the United states, is entitled to an entry at our custom-houses, what- 
ever Bag she may bear, sin- is also entitled to take mi board a return cargo and to 
depart from the United states with the usual clearance. 

The President desires that you will regulate \ our official conduct npon the princi- 
ples that have been Stated ; but if any extraordinary case occurs, you will report it 
to this Department with all possible dispatch. 

I aiu, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant, 

A. .1. DALLAS, 
Secretary ofth* Treasury. 

P. L. B. Dui'LESSIS, Esq., 

• Collector, New Orleans. 

It may be asked, what benefit will the passage of this resolution l>e 
to our struggling political brothers in Cuba, and wherein is their 
Lnd.epend.ence so surely to follow f Sir, ever since this struggle our 
country lias been in the unmanly attitude of holding the Cuban down 
while the Spaniard is fighting him. We have long- felt the meanness 
and unmanliness of our false position ; but they say it is our treaty 
obligation to Spain that compels us to violate our conscience by open- 
ing our doors and stores to the Spanish slave-holder, while to the poor 
slave and the Cuban we must sell or give nothing, not even a cup of 
cold water or kind expression of sympathy. Shameful attitude in 
the eyes of our own self-respect ! How must we, the giant and paternal 
republic of the New World, appear in the estimation of the weak but 
chivalrous republics of Mexico and South America, who long ago 
recognized the belligerent rights of the infant republic of Cuba .' 

Spain has all the privileges of trade and facilities in the ports of 
the United States', replenishes her war stores, and repairs her ships 
of war in American ports whenever necessity may demand; and with 
her thirty gun-boats, built but a few years ago for her in the United 
States, she has indeed every advantage, except in valor on an equal 
battle-held, over the Cubans, who are not allowed by the guardians 
of tl\e law and the treaty to receive tiny instruments of warfare, 
either by purchase or contribution, from liberty-loving friends and 
sympathizers. 

But the most ridiculous posture in which diplomacy has placed us 
is, that while we are stooping over to hold the poor Cuban on his 
back, and all in zealous and delicate fulfillment of the treaty, the 
haughty captain-general kicks us in the back, while his Catalan vol- 
unteer sticks a knife between our shoulder, and then blusteringly 
refers us to Madrid for apology or redress : and to Madrid we go only 
to find a government that stands more in awe of the captain-general 
than he does of it. 

Under such humiliating circumstances what American does not ad- 
mire the Roman spirit of that grand old Senator, Thomas H. Benton, 
who on the floor of the American Senate, in it debate upon the rev- 
olution for liberty in the Spanish South American provinces, said: 

In such a case I declare it to by my sentiment that treaties :uv nothing, books 
are nothing, laws arc nothing: that the paramount law of God and nature is every- 



23 

tiling; and that the American soldier, hearing the cry of helplessness and weak- 
ness, and remembering only that he was a»man born of woman and the father of 
children, should fly to the resoue, and strike to prevent the further perpetration of 
crimes that shock humanity and dishonor the age ! 

With tho passage of this resolution will come tlie proclamation of 
equal privileges ami advantages in all ports ami places within the 
United States. Impartial neutrality will then bo observed by our 
Government between the Cuban and the Spanish belligerents, and 
equal liberties to pursue the operations of war and purchase mili- 
tary stores will be accorded to both parties. With this recognition 
will also follow an observance of. the rules of civilized warfare on 
the part of Spain, and her now unchecked barbarities would cease, 
or interference would be justifiable on the part of enlightened nations 
as in the case of Greece in her war of independence against Turkey. 

This would be placing the oppressor and the oppressed upon an 
equal footing, and nerved by love of liberty and valor, and cheered 
by the certainty of fair play, how long would it be before the prowess 
of the Cubans and the hosts of their friends who would spring out of 
the earth like the mailed warriors that sprang from the sowing of the 
dragon's teeth would plant the flag of victory over every rood of that 
glorious island. 

Did not Mr. Webster, the ablest lawyer and most learned diplo- 
matist, as Secretary of State, declare to the British minister, Mr. Fox, 
in 1841, as follows : 

It is well known to Mr. Fox that authorities of the highest eminence in England, 
living and dead, have maintained that the general law of nations does not forbid 
the citizens or subjects of one government from taking part in the civil commotions 
of another. 

But I am done. Whatever oxir action may be upon this resolution, 
while its passage would be like the outburst of the sun upon the 
mariner laboring for safety in a mighty storm, nevertheless the fail- 
ure of its passage will not put out a single camp-fire of liberty on 
that devoted island. God and the American people will still keep 
watch over it, until the fullness of time shall bring it triumphantly 
into the family of nations. I believe, this glorious time is not far dis- 
tant, for the mills of the gods have ground slowly but surely for sis 
years, and the upper and the nether mill stone will soon come together. 

Under no j>ossible contingency, without involving the interests 
and safety of the United States in constant jeopardy, can our Gov- 
ernment much longer subordinate its sympathy and recognition of 
independence to the haughty behests of diplomacy, for the impulses 
of political aud human nature toward this kindred people in Cuba 
are stronger than the webs of heartless diplomacy, and American 
patriotism stands ready to enthusiastically assume the responsibility. 



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